I’m not a great opinion-water, at least directly. I hate being proselytized and marketed to and can’t bring myself to do it to other people.

That said, I’ve been told I was responsible for converting a few people over the years. Not being pushy or trying to convert anyone was a common thread there, however much that mean in context of anything else.

I’ve definitely had deeper conversations with plenty of people on the subject, usually when they’ve been trying to antagonize me about it but sometimes out of pure curiosity. Not a single one of those has ever seemed to go anywhere productive. Maybe a meatless Monday or two at best.

What could I do differently in these situations? I guess get over my hangups about preaching and actually preach is one thing, though I’m not convinced that would help. I don’t really have any concrete examples of being vegan having a positive effect on my life to lean on, no cured cancer or diabetes or weight loss or gain…but if I did I’d probably point those things out. 🤷

I don't really try and guide people towards veganism but when people ask me why I'm vegan I say something like "I love animals and I don't want to harm them." Or "I don't think living things should be commodities."

If you leave it with "I love animals" they will say something like "me too" and I'm too scared of conflict to call that out, so I just lay it out from the start 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway, I am not a vegan myself but I support veganism and I can see that you have positive intentions with this instance. I think that it’s a valuable space and component of the fediverse and I hope it continues to grow. I hold a great deal of admiration and respect for vegans, especially those who do it for ethical reasons.

Got curious and went outside of my HB bubble and saw this. I'd just like to say, if you claim to support veganism, but don't care to actually be a vegan, then no you fucking don't.

Q response:

Tbh I have given up on my loved ones. I was part of convincing my little sis and her partner, they were already sympathetic and I think the combo of seeing both myself and sister the eldest be vegan through very different paths + just being relentless at every family gathering about bringing up the horror on their plates pushed them over the edge. Other than that though, my parents flat out reject it, the most success I've had with a friend is them doing it for a couple of months before deciding it was "too hard".

Currently I just refuse to hang out if anyone is eating non vegan food.

The closest to a recent convo would be, I was hanging out with my folks and catching up with an uncle I haven't seen in a few years. I was having a laugh at the sheer horror of how solar thermal plants have this problem of turning insects and also birds into fireballs (I am of the opinion you can either laugh or cry at most of life and I choose laugh, I'm not a sadist just tired of crying) and how stuff like this comes up every time we try and fix anything. My mum got quiet and was like "oh that's so horrible" and I was like "But... you eat birds enthusiastically and think it's fine" and she told me to lay off.

So... yeah...

Anyway, I've been about as sick as I've ever been. Licorice tea and opiate antitussives are the only think keeping me alive. Almost through to the other side. Yesterday I felt well enough to get out of bed and made an atrocious pot with wild clay purified from the diggings I did. I'm blaming the quality of the clay rather than my own complete lack of skill (first try at any pottery)! Hopefully it'll fire to earthenware but it's not bonded very well so I expect it to fall apart. The clay has low plasticity, gonna try removing courser particles when I'm well enough and then try again.

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I've had a lot of discussions with people about veganism. To be honest I've had the most success talking about health and well being and then segue into Animal rights and how they are treated. While I think "vegans for health" aren't really vegan I do think they're one of the best groups to target with animal rights messaging because they should have the meat goggles off. This is why I am grateful for the vcj style memes because I was able to process them with much less defensive walls up.

How to communicate health and well being is hard enough though and I think it works best when you or someone you love is already suffering from metabolic diseases which really sucks. That said there is so much misinformation and wishful thinking in this space it is hard to know how to get through to someone without going into the realm of bullshit. This is why I am really thankful for people like Dr. Greger and Dr. Bernard.

In terms of a specific, recently I was talking to someone about veganism who is mostly there but doesn't get the full breadth of the philosophy I think it over all went well and for once I wasn't too active which helped. I think being patient and persistent matters more than anything I can specifically at the time.

I'm mostly non-combative about it unless I see someone being deliberately obtuse or antagonistic about it. Then I go off a lot of times.

I've just sort of learned that most people who have opinions about veganism don't even know what it is. Their opinions are mostly from the circlejerk around PETA and the "annoying vegan" trope.

When I first switched to plant-based. I told a co-worker in passing because I thought he was a friend or something. His response was "Pffff why?" He's a libertarian chud that really likes his guns and hunting though so whatever. He did try to find a place I could eat for a lunch meeting thing when he came into town though so I guess that was nice.

I told my mom and her response was "Well I'm still gonna eat meat." I don't understand why that was her response but it was.

I told another co-worker after he went in a 15 minute unsolicited and rather unhinged rant about how shitty vegans are. I was basically like "You know I'm vegan right?" And his response was literally another rant about how he doesn't really mind vegans as long as they don't shove their beliefs down his throat, then he asked me "...so you still eat chicken though, right?"

So yeah I mostly just don't bother with people irl.

I thought about not sending this as I have been very unsuccessful in advocating for veganism, but considering the other comments I thought I may as well share.

When I became vegan at 16 I had my worldview shatter. I promptly went and told all my friends about veganism, the horrors of animal agriculture, and urged them to become educated on the issue. All, with one exception, got upset at me when I talked about it and eventually stopped being my friends, partly due to me advocating for veganism. I think the last straw was when I sent the group chat Dominion after I had seen it. It was very traumatising to watch and I wanted the others to know of the horrors they were contributing to (especially considering we were all living in Australia), but apparently I was "making everything about myself" again... I ditched their sorry asses soon afterwards.

The only exception to this, ended up watching some Earthling Ed videos I had sent and ended up becoming an "ethical" vegetarian 😭. I tried explaining how the dairy industry is not "ethical", but they genuinely seem to not be able to understand or care enough to do anything about it. I was mortified that I had created a vegetarian.

Afterwards, I didn't have many friends due to being vegan—among other issues—, but the one time I did make a new friend (via falling in love with an omni) I did basically instantly convert them to veganism just by explaining that meat is murder and veganism is based lol. I think they just trusted my word for it and they are a super based vegan still after years.

So becoming vegan, I lost lots of friends (although veganism was just one of many things that amounted to that), accidentally converted one to vegetarianism, and only once successfully created another vegan. I'm quite ashamed of how little (perceived) impact I've made, but recently I have been quite proud of my one convert as they are my best friend now and I don't have to deal with carnists on a day to day basis.

I haven't had any major discussions guiding people to veganism that i can recall, i mostly just try to host my friends and cook them delicious vegan food so that they know vegan food can be delicious too. All my friends and family know I'm vegan and know they can ask me questions. A lot ask me for the recipes i make. If they ask questions about being vegan then i answer and ask them what's stopping them and see if theres any misconceptions i can help with. I wouldn't say those are major conversations, just small guiding ones

I've really had it with Lemmy. I tried pretty hard to enjoy myself using this service but the people that have migrated from reddit are the worst of the worst. The constant US election bullshit and focus, the harassment communities, the drama, the targeting people I like has gotten to me in a way that I don't like and I don't know if I'm coming back.

I've been donating to the devs, running an instance and trying hard to participate in good faith. What did I get in return? A literally crazy person who pretended to be my friend then went nuclear and used alts to try and manipulate me and my community when it didn't go her way. That in particular made me sick to my stomach, they literally pretended to be my friend just to turn around and go to manipulation instead of discussion. They are one of the most active posters with a stream of low effort shit that no one really needs to read. Highly upvoted. I could have seen that anywhere else. Pretty soon after a bunch of people who focus on bullying users who are my friends was the end of the fucks I have to give. I feel like I've wasted my time and money here and I'm not really sure what my next steps here are.

Some loser I interacted with was the last straw, gaslighting me saying that because a thread was about the civil war that a discussion between two people one of who was saying chemical weapons was bad and the moderator of said community clearly saying how they work well against people in bunkers while running a community about military defense memes was too much. You fucking fascists and your plausible deniability behind shit posting is the worst and it isn't my reading comprehension, it is you being an inhuman fuck. This guy literally is a fucking basement dwelling troll with no life and why would I let them make me mad? They are the most pathetic person in the world and I hate them, this is a waste of my emotions. Honestly if I was online as much as that person I would be ashamed of how I was living my life. But they're not alone in their petty bullshit and hostility. The general community here is vicious with their down votes and silencing tactics and it really seems like there is a concentration of hopelessness and depression here. Especially the way people here are promoting a war in other places with all the mass death and destruction it entails while viciously silencing calls for ceasefire and peace make me sick. The fact that any view coming from anyone is smeared as Russian really speaks to how much American propaganda is infesting this place and their minds. In the end of the day, isn't it convenient how they can all sit in their homes thousands of miles away playing video games while promoting war, it is disgusting. If you support war get off your loser ass and go fight and see how it is. I can tell you as someone who has had a military destroy their family that no war is worth it, ceasefire is always the best solution to save lives. I wish I could just block and filter it all but then there is literally nothing left being posted it seems.

I had enough, I had enough with the Americans who dominate it. I had enough with the ratio of bullying to content. The way this is going has no future and I am tired of wasting my time. I like the cooking community and I will see if there is a way I can life boat that elsewhere but I for sure am not going to be posting on other lemmy instances anymore. You dipshits won. I'm sure these terminally online losers who dominate this service will be happy to sit there and post to themselves in a never ending circlejerk.

I'll see ya'all later when I have some food to share, otherwise I'm done.